Mining apparatus and method of operating the same



J y 1965 D. M. SCHWARTZ ETAL 3,

MINING APPARATUS AND METHOD OI OPERATING THE SAME Filed May 8, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 DANIEL M SCH WARTZ QJMQJM ATTORNEY INVENTORS. DONALD E. HENDRICKSON ROLF A. KNOPP July 27, 1965 D. M. SCHWARTZ ETAL 3,196,563

MINING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME Filed May 8, 1962 s Sheets-Sheet 2 g lkk \llh Huh

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Q I DANIEL M. SCHWARTZ n 2% iv um WTORNEY J y 1965 D. M. SCHWARTZ ETAL 3,

MINING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME Filed May 8, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTORS. DONALD E. HENDRICKSON ROLF A. KNOPP DANIEL M. SCHWARTZ BY QQJQJMLQ ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,196,563 MINING APPARATUS AND METHOD OF OPERATING THE SAME Daniel M. Schwartz, Donald E. Hendrickson, and Rolf A.

Knopp, Salt Lake City, Utah, assignors to The Eimco Corporation, Salt Lake City, Utah, a corporation of Delaware Filed May 8, 1962, Ser. No. 193,211 1 Claim. (Cl. 37-115) The present invention relates to underground mining and in particular to an improved apparatus and method of operation particularly applicable to mining in low overhead situations where the width between the footwall or floor and the hanging wall or root is relatively small.

One of the major difiiculties in low width mining operations is the retrieving of the broken ore. It is currently common practice to use a drag line and scraper or to accomplish this by hand labor using shovels. While these are workable schemes and have been used for many years, they are not all that is to be desired. Hand labor has obvious disadvantages while the standard scraper possesses disadvantages in that the scraper must be pulled up onto the top of the broken ore and then pulled back over the ore to pick up a load for removal to the strike gulley.

Pulling the scraper onto the top of broken ore is a problem in low width operations due to lack of space; and in addition, at least part of the material being moved by the scraper is not carried but is dragged across the broken ore and across the floor. This causes abrasion and pulverizing of the ore; and the resulting fines are ground into crevices and cracks in the floor necessitating cleanup by hand and inevitably resulting in the loss of material that simply cannot be recovered. The latter problem is particularly serious in the mining of noble metals where this grinding and pulverizing action causes settling of high grade material to the floor. Thus, even the minor quantities of ore lost in this manner represent a high value.

A further problem of such prior type operations is the creation of large quantities of dust which poses a definite health hazard.

According to the present invention, the foregoing disadvantages are overcome by a novel apparatus, and a method of operating the same, in which broken ore is retrieved by a special device which operates as a combination scraper and hauler which picks up a load of ore by forceful entry into the front of the mass of broken ore without scraping or dragging then, upon reversal of its travel, converts to a hauler to move the ore to the strike gulley in the manner of a bucket or other haulage unit. This avoids the necessity of moving the scraper across the mass of broken ore hence enables the use of a bigger device with a resultant saving in time. In other words, because the new apparatus of the invention picks up its load from the retreating front of the broken ore mass at floor level, the bucket may be almost as large as the full width between floor and roof. Moreover, because the device carries the ore only over a previously cleaned floor surface rather than scraping and dragging it, problems of abrasion and consequent loosening and loss of valuable fines are avoided; and creation of harmful dust is materially reduced.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood and carried into etfect, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which are offered by way of example only and are not to be taken as limiting the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows the invention embodied in a stope mining operation and illustrates the scraper-hauler bucket of the invention preparing to load from the front of a broken ore mass.

FIG. 2 is similar to FIG. 1, but shows the bucket loaded and operating as a carrier, hauling a load of ore to the strike gulley.

FIG. 3 is a more or less schematic side view looking into the strike gulley showing operation of the scraper hauler bucket in the loading, carrying, and unloading operations. The unloading position is shown in dotted lines for purposes of clarity.

FIG. 4 is an isometric view of the sheave rig of the invention positioned in a strike gulley for moving the scraper-hauler buckets back and forth in the stope.

As is readily ascertainable from FIGS. 1 and 2, the overall arrangement is quite usual to the extent that it involves an arrangement employing a suitably driven double cable drum 10 by which cables or other tension means are employed to pull a scraper device between strike gulleys 12 at opposite sides of a stope 13 through sheaves mounted and arranged on a frame.

As is usual in such operations, ore is mined from the face 16 by blasting it into the stope 13. A scatter wall 17 is maintained to prevent wide scattering of the blasted ore into already cleaned areas of the stope.

In the present invention, however, the usual scraper is replaced by a special unit which combines the function of scraping with hauling or carrying. This unit is generally designated 18. Also, as can be best seen from FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, each sheave rig is adapted to operate in both directions from a strike gulley and to that purpose, each rig is provided with sheaves serving an end of each of two different stopes.

The sheave rigs are constructed (cf. FIG. 4) with movable sheave blocks 19 and fixed blocks 20 onto which the cables 11 are trained from the drums 10 and suitable sheaves 21. The movable blocks 19 are shifted by means of cables or chains 22 which run through and are powered by separate motorized gear boxes 23. This permits shifting of the blocks across the length of the rig to obtain diagonal sweep, and thus complete cleanup, of the stope as indicated by dotted lines in FIG. 1.

The supporting frame 24 of the sheave rig is adapted to stand in the strike gulley and includes anchoring means comprising pads 26 mounted on a sub-frame 27 and adapted to be urged into firm engagement with the roof by a hydraulic or screw jack 28.

Striker bars 29 are mounted on the sheave rig frame in a position to stop the bucket as it is pulled to the dumping position as shown in the dotted lines of FIG. 3.

The sheave rig support frame 24 may have a skid type base, or can be mounted on wheels, to permit easy movement of the entire rig in the strike gulley as mining advances, or for moving it away from the stope face during blasting. Also the frame is such that it straddles the major portion of the gulley thus permitting free movement of appropriate secondary haulage means, such as cars, scraper-haulers or conventional scrapers, for removing ore from the strike gulleys.

As previously noted, the invention presents a novel type bucket and manner of operation which is best shown with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 wherein it will be noted that the bucket 18 is constructed to be pulled into a scraping position for loading as cable 11 pulls on the elevated tow point 31 to advance the bucket toward the broken ore and away from the strike gulley. The bucket is so constructed that tension on the tow point 31 depresses the bucket front whereby lip 32 is lowered to a loading position, preferably at floor level, and advances to forcibly enter the ore mass to pick up a load. After it is filled, and cable 11 reverses to pull toward the strike gulley, the reverse pull on the elevated tow point 31 causes 0.3 a reverse rotation of the bucket which in turn elevates the scraping lip 32 and the bucket thereafter rides on bottom skids 33 whilecarrying the ore to the strike gulley, the ore there being confined by the bucket side walls and the'bottom acting as walls in the carrying position. Thus, in side view the bucket may be said to comprise spacedapart side walls and a generally concave bottom which acts as confining walls when the bucket is in the carrying position. The elevated tow point eifect rotation of the bucket from carrying to loading position and vice versa. In other words, the cable motion, in combination with its connection to the elevated tow point which is located above the bottom skid 33, eifect rotation of the bucket from carrying to digging position and vice versa.

At the strike gulley, the bucket is pulled against the strike bars for dumping into the gulley, whence it is removed by a car or scraper, or even a bucket arrangement similar to that of the invention. If desired, the skid 33 may be provided with retractable wheels to obtain the same result. Also, different arrangements may be made to etfect tilting ofthe, bucket for loading, carrying and dumping.

It is important to note that by loading the bucket in the manner described, the ore is cleaned completely from the floor and no difficulty is encountered due to dragging over the broken ore mass or the loss of valuable metals due to abrasion as previously mentioned.

As can be best seen in the left hand bucket in FIG. 3, the bucket loads readily in the manner of a shovel as it forcibly advances into the ore then, upon reversal of its travel, as shown in the right hand side of FIG. 3, the device becomes a carrier which moves the ore only over already cleaned floor areas to the strike gulley.

In summary then, the structure includes a novel bucket having a loader lip and material-confining walls and is provided with means to move it into loading position, as by depressing the loading lip, as it advances toward the broken ore and to tilt it to a carrying position upon reversal of its motion to move toward discharge at the strike gulley.

In the illustrated embodiment, the new bucket is provided with a wheel 34 which is adapted to ride against the mine roof in the event the bucket has a tendency to kick up at the rear during loading. A skid may be substituted for the wheel with equivalent results.

i It is also to be noted that the new system with its motorized movable sheave blocks lends itself admirably to remote control of the entire loading operation. Thus, the operator can be located in a stope adjacent to the working area and can remotely control the scraper-hauler to position it any place in the stope for complete cleanup. For instance, the operator can be positioned behind 3,1ise,5es

the scatter Wall 17 with appropriate openings through it for complete vision.

From the foregoing it is obvious that great advantages can be obtained by use of the method and apparatus of the present invention in that much hand work is avoided while material loss and dangerous dust conditions are minimized. At the same time loading equipment is subjected to far less wear than in previous operations; and greater mining rates can be achieved by the use of larger carriers in the same space.

Vile claim:

A carrying device for attachment to cables mounted to be pulled back and forth across the floor of a mining area to retrieve broken ore therefrom, said device comprising an open-top unitary bucket structure having fixed material-confining side, front and rear walls and including a load-engaging edge on the front wall, said front and rear walls being joined together at the bottom of the bucket, groun -engaging support means onthe bottom of said bucket substantially at the juncture of said front and rear walls, and tow means responsive to pull in one direction for depressing said load-engaging edge to a lowered position for scooping into a mass of broken ore and responsive to pull in the opposite direction for elevation of said load-engaging edge thereby to confine ore within the walls of said device, said means comprising a cable-engaging tow fixture fixed on said bucket at an elevation above said ground-engaging support means whereby said bucket is pivoted in opposite directionsabout said ground-engaging support means upon the application of opposite pulling forces to said fixture, and a wheel rotatably mounted on said bucket adjacent the juncture of said rear wall with the top edges of said side walls, the radius of said wheel being less than the distance between said ground-engaging support means and the axis of rotation of said wheel, the plane of said wheel being generally parallel to said side walls.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 383,584 5/88 Meyers 37l15 744,491 11/03 Cole 37-115 1,397,560 11/21 Strange 37--115 2,507,251 5/ 50 Herold. 2,588,657 3/52 Pitts 37115 X FOREIGN PATENTS 647,881 8/28 France.

8,951 1893 Great Britain. 10,641 1897 Great Britain.

HUGO O. SCHULZ, P 'imary Examiner.

ERNEST A. FALLER, IR., Examiner. 

